Peru declares environmental emergency after oil spill
The strike against Amazon is over but Teamsters warn: ‘Stay tuned’
Putin says there is no time to sign new Ukraine gas transit deal this year
Iran's Pezeshkian to visit Moscow Jan 17, RIA reports, citing Iranian envoy to Russia
Manmohan Singh, India’s former prime minister, dies aged 92, says hospital
Column-Why US Congress restored Social Security benefits for public-sector retirees: Mark Miller
‘Wicked’ will make its streaming debut on New Year’s Eve, with deleted and extended scenes
Detroit Red Wings fire coach Derek Lalonde, name Todd McLellan as his replacement
Powerful thunderstorms rumble across Texas, delaying holiday travel
By Akash Sriram
(Reuters) -Tesla shares rose more than 5% on Monday after Bloomberg News reported that President-elect Donald Trump's transition team was planning to set up federal regulations for autonomous vehicles.
The report comes days after Trump named the automaker's CEO, Elon Musk, as a co-head of the incoming administration's government efficiency department.
Trump's team is looking for policy leaders for the transport department to develop a federal regulatory framework, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Last month, Musk criticized the state-by-state approval process, required for self-driving vehicles, as "incredibly painful", weeks after unveiling a two-seat "Cybercab" robotaxi without a steering wheel and foot pedals, set to go into production in 2026.
"A unified federal regulation could streamline this (approval process), allowing Tesla to push forward more rapidly with FSD testing," said Mamta Valechha, analyst at Quilter Cheviot.
However, the regulation is not the primary barrier holding Tesla back at the moment, it's the company's Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver assistance software that is still not fully autonomous and requires driver supervision.
The FSD technology, which has been in development for more than four years, is also under a U.S. auto safety body investigation, after four reported collisions involving Tesla vehicles equipped with the software, including a 2023 fatal crash.
Trump's victory has propelled the company past a $1 trillion market valuation mark, with shares surging nearly 28% since Nov. 5, as investors hope Musk's close ties to the White House would ease regulation for self-driving vehicles.
The steep climb has also pushed the stock's price-to-earning multiple, a common benchmark for valuing shares, well above automakers such as Ford Motor and General Motors, and even tech giants such as Apple and Nvidia.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
